Why Is Belly Fat Hard to Lose?

Updated on September 17, 2011

Why Belly Fat Is Hard To Lose

For many of us, what makes belly fat hard to lose is simple -- we don't try very hard. Be honest now, how much exercise have you been doing lately? Have you been watching what you eat or do you just eat whatever you feel like eating? I'm going to plead the fifth on that one!

If you think you need to do hundreds of sit-ups and crunches to get rid of your belly fat and get a flat stomach, you're in for a pleasant surprise. While those types of exercises do firm and tone the abdominal muscles, they don't burn fat - in your belly or anywhere else - any better or worse than any other type of exercise.

So how do you get rid of belly fat? The same way you get rid of any other fat. To get rid of fat, you need to burn more calories than you consume. There are several calorie calculators online that will give you an idea of how many calories you should be consuming in order to lose weight and burn fat.

Calculate Calories Needed for Goal WeightCalculates calores to reach your goal weight. It recommends a 1350-calorie diet for me, and says it will take eleven months to reach my goal. Maybe I should shoot for something a little more realistic!

Weight Maintenance Calculator for WomenAccording to this calculator, to maintain my current weight of 225 pounds, I would have to eat 2191.25 calories per day. If I had already reached my goal weight of 155 pounds, I would only need 1808.75 calories per day to maintain that weight.

Exercise

If you really want to burn your hard to lose belly fat, exercise is a must. First of all, it allows you to eat more. Can you tell I am not really into that 1350-calorie starvation diet? Since you burn calories when you exercise, you can increase the amount of calories in your diet by the number of extra calories you are burning through your exercise program. For example, if I can find a way to burn 300 calories per day by exercising, I can eat up to 1650 calories per day and still reach my target weight in eleven months. Yay!

In addition to burning calories, exercise also builds muscle. Since muscle tissue burns more calories when it's not working than other tissues, once you have built up some muscle you will be burning more calories while you're resting than you did before you started your exercise program. For this reason, incorporating some weight training into your exercise program is a really good idea.

Exercise Calculator

Get Moving CalculatorFigures out how many calories you will burn by doing different types of exercise, based on your body weight and the length of time you will be exercising. Wow, I can burn that extra 300 calories by doing just 30 minutes of aerobics each day!

Recap

So now you know what makes belly fat hard to lose. It's willpower! If you have a lot of belly fat, you either need to eat a lot less than you probably realize, or exercise a lot more. Perhaps a combination is a better, more balanced approach. I wish I could tell you that there's an easier answer, but believe me, I've looked. The only way to lose the fat is to make sure you consume fewer calories than your body needs. That way, your body will have no choice but to dip into its fat reserves for energy. How hard will it be? Ask me again in about eleven months.

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Comments 1 comment

bethparker, again a great hub. I have been exercising at least 4 times per week for the last three months, but i have not lost any weight. I have been watching what I eat - I mostly eat fish & chicken, fresh fruits and vegetables and few starches, such as sweet potatoes & squash. I take fish oil supplement daily. What am I doing wrong?